News & Analysis

Advanced Targets - Week 16

By Shawn Siegele &bullet;
Dec 27, 2012

Congratulations to everyone who won fantasy championships on the back of Calvin Johnson’s 16-target, 11-catch, 225-yard day. (And congratulations to those who won in spite of it.) A week ago Advanced Targets posited that Megatron might blow past Jerry Rice on the way to an unbreakable 2,000-yard record. Needing only 108 yards more, Calvin is now averaging 126 on the season.

Almost everything about Johnson’s season has been extraordinary. It’s easy to denigrate his accomplishments by pointing to a league-leading 1,119 snaps, 728 routes, and 188 targets, but the extremely large sample makes his efficiency numbers even more surprising. His route numbers have increased in three consecutive seasons (626-692-726) but so have his yards per route (1.79-2.43-2.60). Within the context of a dysfunctional Detroit offense completely bereft of even replacement level talents at the other running and receiving positions, Johnson’s season should probably go down as one of the greatest in the history of sports.

Championship Receivers

Snaps

Targets

Routes

TA/SN

TA/PR

PR/SN

YPRR

A.J. Green

63

18

47

0.29

0.38

0.75

2.47

Mike A. Williams

81

17

62

0.21

0.27

0.77

2.13

Calvin Johnson

77

16

54

0.21

0.30

0.70

4.17

Brandon Marshall

56

15

27

0.27

0.56

0.48

2.52

Vincent Jackson

83

15

60

0.18

0.25

0.72

1.80

Demaryius Thomas

72

13

39

0.18

0.33

0.54

2.62

Jeremy Maclin

76

13

56

0.17

0.23

0.74

2.07

Marques Colston

72

13

44

0.18

0.30

0.61

3.48

Brandon Lloyd

71

12

44

0.17

0.27

0.62

1.41

Dez Bryant

50

12

41

0.24

0.29

0.82

5.46

Justin Blackmon

75

12

54

0.16

0.22

0.72

1.46

Larry Fitzgerald

75

12

53

0.16

0.23

0.71

2.09

Championship week saw a bevy of big name receivers capitalize on high target totals. With the exception of Brandon Lloyd, every wideout with at least 12 targets managed either 100-plus yards or a touchdown.